


Credence

by stellarparallax



Series: 300 Followers Celebration Fics [3]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Dystopian, Human Experimentation, M/M, Partners to Lovers, Post-Apocalypse, Rebellion, Strangers to Lovers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-18
Updated: 2017-12-18
Packaged: 2019-02-16 11:03:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,733
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13052691
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/stellarparallax/pseuds/stellarparallax
Summary: Loyalty is rewarded in the Galra Empire. The more loyal you are to the government, the better your life will be. In that same vein, any act of defiance, regardless of how small, will be punished severely. There are also dos and don't. For example, galra and humans aren't allowed to bear children of mixed heritage. Ultimately, the ruling Galra want one thing -- control.Keith had long accepted that he would never be allowed to leave his cell. As a person with a human father and a galra mother, he had been to being subjected to experiment after experiment.One day, someone helps him escape.





	Credence

**Author's Note:**

> Hello! To coincide with me almost reaching 300 followers on tumblr, I ran a poll asking which rarepair my followers would like me to write for. I'm planning to write for all of the pairings, but the poll was to see which ones got published first. Keitor and Katt were tied for second place, and Keitor is done, so here is Katt!  
> Huge huge huge huge shoutout to Trisha <3 for helping me work out this idea, walking me through plotting a dystopian fic and coming up with the title. Thank you so much!! You can check out her tumblr [here](http://anglmukhii.tumblr.com/) and her ao3 page [here](http://archiveofourown.org/users/anglmukhii).

“Regris, can you help me out here? I can’t get past the firewall,” Keith declared.

Regris walked over to the side of the room that Keith was in, unhesitatingly taking up the space in front of the keyboard that Keith had once occupied. His eyes scanned the software code that was displayed on the screen, then his fingers started moving, slamming down the buttons on the keyboard. The system emitted a beeping sound, then a blinking pop-up window with the words “access granted” flashing on the screen.

“Done,” he said before returning to the computer that he was originally working on.

Keith rifled through the software, checking for any differences to the previous version. The algorithm for the interface of the maximum security cell was identical to its predecessor. 

“Shit, it’s a trap,” Keith growled.

“What?” Regris asked.

Suddenly, the door flew off its hinges and six men with laser guns barged into the room. Keith ducked, curled up into a ball and rolled to the side to avoid the laser beams. Regris pushed himself off the ground and scaled up the wall. He waited for them to stop shooting when their weapons needed to recharge and he took the chance to lunge at them, knocking a row of them out in the process. 

“I’ll cover you. Take the intel and run!” Regris shouted.

Keith pulled the data drive out of the computer port and ran. He knew that there wouldn’t be a point to extracting the intel since the Galra would likely recode all of their systems to prevent another intrusion, but at least they would have a frame of reference to guess what the next encryption would be like. 

Keith had two routes to exit the building — going straight through the building via the main hallways, and taking the maintenance route. The former would definitely get him out of danger sooner, but it wasn’t the most inconspicuous method. He didn’t need to attract any more attention than he already did, especially if he’d have to fight them all off alone. Still, it wasn’t as if the maintenance route was a risk free option.

He glanced up at the security cameras, and oddly enough, saw them all turning to face the walls. He approached them hesitantly, convinced that it was a trap. After a few ticks of them not returning to their original direction, he decided to risk it. 

He ran till he reached a crossroads, then he figured that his luck had run out. There were guards coming in from all directions but the one he came from. He squeezed his eyes shut and took a deep breath, mentally preparing himself. 

Then, he launched himself at the first guard to approach him, jumped and kicked his head in. Before he touched the ground, he hooked his legs around the next guard’s neck and pulled it down with him. He unsheathed his blade and went for the next guard. 

He had knocked all but one of the guards out and was about to finish the job, when he suddenly felt his wrists being weighed down. He hadn’t noticed that the last guard he fought had managed to slap a pair of cuffs on him. He fell, his face slapping onto the hard surface in the process. He tried to writhe his way out of the cuffs, but they were too tight. He looked up as he accepted his fate of getting recaptured and thrown back into the experimental suite. 

Suddenly, the eyes of the guard that was approaching him widened, then fell shut. Then, he collapsed next to Keith.

A man with light brown hair and large circular glasses stood over him. He bent down and released Keith from his restraints.

“Go, hurry,” he whispered.

“Wait, I recognise you. You helped me to—”

“Shh, we can talk some other time. You need to leave now before they suspect foul play.”

Keith struggled to get back up to his feet, almost falling over in the process. The fatigue had accumulated in his muscles and he needed to get home soon to rest. 

“My partner…”

“I know. I’ll take care of it. Trust me.”

Keith let his gaze linger on the other man for a while longer before reorienting himself to the exit and using the last of his energy reserves to sprint towards it.

When he got to the exit, Regris was already there waiting for him to arrive. 

“How… How did you…?” 

“I got lucky. During the fight, one of the guards accidentally blasted open a door that concealed a stairway that led directly to the roof. I just had to climb down to rendezvous with you at the back exit of the building,” Regris explained.

“He was telling the truth.”

“Who was?”

“Uh… Nothing. Let’s head back.” 

They ran towards their hoverbikes that they had hidden in the trees of the thick forest that lined the perimeter of the facility. They got on and drove off, masterfully avoiding crashing into the trees. Eventually, they crossed the forest. The sun was suddenly unbearably hot, its beams no longer obstructed in the wide desert plains.

 

* * *

 

_ “Shiro, stay with me,” Keith begged as he squeezed Shiro’s cold and clammy hand. _

_ “Keith…” _

_ “Please, don’t leave me,” he choked out, tears streaming down his cheeks, “You’re all that I have.” _

_ “I don’t know if I can hold on any longer…” _

_ “You have to!” _

_ “Keith…” _

_ There was a mechanical whir as the secured door to the experimental suite snapped open. Keith looked up and saw a slim bespectacled man with short, light brown hair. He recognised him immediately — he was the one who had been put in charge of his physical assessments. _

_ “You, back off,” Keith growled, looming protectively over Shiro’s lifeless body that had been strapped to the operation table. _

_ “Please, I’m here to help. I can’t help Shiro escape, but I can help you.” _

_ “Why me?” _

_ “Even in such harsh conditions, you excelled in all of your physical exams. With rest and better training, you’d be able to be strong enough to come back and help Shiro. When you get out, look for the Blade of Marmora.Tell them that Matt Holt sent you.” _

_ “I’m not leaving Shiro in this state.” _

_ “It has to be now. They are planning to perform a potentially fatal experiment on you tomorrow at dawn. This may be your only chance to escape.” _

_ Keith looked at Shiro. _

_ “Keith… Go…” _

_ “I’m not leaving you. With me gone, they’re only going to make things worse for you.” _

_ “Keith… If I don’t make it out of here, it would have been worth it knowing that you're safe.” _

_ “No, stop, nothing is worth your pain.” _

_ “You are… Please, if you don’t go now… I won’t have a chance either.” _

Keith jumped awake so fast that he almost hit his head against the upper bunk. His breaths were laboured and his heart was pounding. He frequently got dreams about the other subject in the experimental suite with him, but they were never as vivid as the dream he just had. The only clue he had that Shiro was still alive and well was that the security system for his cell has only gotten more sophisticated each time they checked on it. They couldn't break Shiro out just yet because they were waiting for a technician to put together a hacking device that would do the work for them automatically. If they had to manually hack into the system, they were sure to get caught before they could even get to the cell, seeing that it was ten floors underground and the only way of getting to it was through the building. 

“Keith, is everything alright?” Regris had the bed above his and was evidently also shaken by Keith’s sudden movement. 

“I… Shiro…”

“Keith, listen to me. We’ll save him. Calm yourself down and go back to sleep.”

“You promise?” As soon as the words escaped his lips, he regretted how childish they made him sound.

“Yes, I promise. Now go to sleep. In a few hours, we have a mission to help cover trucks delivering food to rebel bases. You’ll need to be as fresh as you can be.

“Okay.”

 

* * *

 

“Matt, right?”

“That would be me, ye—” Matt’s eyes widened when he saw Keith.

“You need help with that?” Keith tilted his head in the direction of the engine compartment of Matt’s vehicle that he had been bent over.

“That would be great. It seems that my battery is dead.”

Keith took one good look at the battery, then walked back to his hoverbike to retrieve his jumper cables. He connected his bike’s battery to the truck’s battery. He turned the engine of his bike on and let it run.

“Sleeper agent and supply runner. Do you ever have time to sleep?” Keith smirked.

“I took a nap right before this mission.”

“... How long?”

“Fifteen minutes.”

“You’re going to die young.”

“What about you? What are you doing in the middle of nowhere?”

“I was sent to cover a truck that’s delivering food to rebel bases, but it seems that the truck left without me,” Keith’s eyes narrowed.

“Why would they— Oh, you meant me.”

Keith raised an eyebrow as he took a step closer to Matt

“Listen, I got ahead of myself. The base that I’m going to is where my little sister is. I’m sorry for standing you up.”

Keith tilted his head up so that his lips were right next to Matt’s ear.

“No problem at all, Matt Holt. Just don’t get away from me next time,” he whispered huskily.

“I wont.”

Keith pulled back so that he was looking directly at Matt with heavy-lidded eyes. He saw Matt’s lips part slightly, his breathing getting gradually heavier. 

Matt took a step back and walked over to the driver’s seat of his truck to check the battery levels. 

“I think you can stop your engine. My truck should start fine now.”

“As you wish.”

Keith removed the jumper cables and rolled them up so that they could fit into the storage compartment on his hoverbike. He removed two bottles of water that were in the storage compartment and threw one of them to Matt.

Matt caught the bottle with one hand.

“Hey, thanks.”

“Drink up. I’m not planning to stop once we get going.”

“I think I can work with that,” Matt grinned.

**Author's Note:**

> EDIT: I know I said previously that I was going to continue this. Unfortunately, I regret to inform you that I've decided otherwise. I'm very sorry to disappoint anyone that was waiting for another chapter.
> 
> \--
> 
> Thank you for reading till the end! I would really appreciate it if you left kudos and comments!
> 
> You can yell at me @stellar-parallax on tumblr!


End file.
